THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY SOUTHERN COMPANY

November 1, 2000

Stewart Cink

STEWART CINK: Actually, no, there is not that much change. It is playing fairly close to what it plays like all year, with the greens a little bit firm this week, a little less water on them, I think, and the rough is usually pretty thick here, so I think that they haven't had to change the course that much at all.

STEWART CINK: I have a lot of confidence after that week, just, I have kind of got thrown right into the pit and I performed fairly well, so I have a lot of fond memories from there and a lot of confident feelings toward my golf game. But it really remains to be seen if that is going to affect my play any. I feel great about it. I am glad it happened. And I am proud of it. But this is a new tournament and confidence can only help you so I would hope that it will help.

STEWART CINK: No. No, practice rounds are practice rounds. You come out here, you try to notice what is happening on the golf course. You don't really notice about what is happening in yourself. So today being the day before the competition begins I will notice a little bit more about me. But as far as I can tell, it won't be any change.

STEWART CINK: I do. I have lot of local knowledge of the golf course. The greens, some of them are a little funny the way they break. And as far as the other part of that, sleeping in my own bed is great, but driving down 85 to get here is not great. So I feel like I have a very strong disadvantage (laughs) as far as that goes. The other part is, the other players have to drive from the Ritz Downtown and I have to drive from there. Not that I am complaining...

STEWART CINK: Normally it is about 30 minutes. But like this morning it took about an hour and 25 minutes.

STEWART CINK: No, I was okay. I stayed on the phone the whole time like a good driver (laughs).

STEWART CINK: No. No one asked me a thing about it, not one thing.

STEWART CINK: If they ask me I will tell them everything.

STEWART CINK: Some of the keys to winning - driving the ball straight is a key. Length is not a huge factor here because there's only two par 5s, both are reachable by most players. The par 4s, most players will reach the par 4s with a middle iron or less. I don't think there is any long iron par 4s if the winds blows. So length not a huge factor. Putting the ball in the correct part of the green is huge here and can't ever short-shot yourself on this golf course.

STEWART CINK: Well, it is a little strange, I guess, but the course when I was in college is different than it is now. It has been totally redesigned. So East Lake transformed itself from kind of a decaying golf course to this grand setting something that we have now. It is really not the same place. Now my memories from this place now go back only about four years and the memories from those days in college are like they didn't happen here at all. They were from another course.

STEWART CINK: I do because I know about places around here like where Bobby Jones was born over by 16, the clubhouse, all the pictures, it is like a museum in there, and also Georgia Tech connection with going to school there. You do feel a sense of history around here. It feels like a museum almost.

STEWART CINK: In college we practiced out here some. But then officially, after I turned pro, it was one -- the golf director before the current director, and there was a Rotella seminar here and the Georgia Tech coach was at the seminar and director of golf also, they sat beside each other not knowing each other. They introduced each other during the seminar and the coach had said something about how I was looking at joining a golf course up in the other part of town, up closer to where I live. And this was probably in 1995 or 1996, probably 1996, and that is when the golf director said: Hey, we need somebody to kind of represent us on Tour. And that is how it was born. So the next day I got a call. They said, you can come out any time, we will talk about this. Actually, East Lake doesn't really need a representative on Tour, but -- it came out of it, I am a member of East Lake.

STEWART CINK: I did for some time, but they really -- they were either way on it. They really didn't -- they weren't too interested in that kind of publicity. So when I had no other logos on my bag I put East Lake there. Now I have a Titleist logo on my bag to so I don't put it on there.

STEWART CINK: I think that was about 1994, 1995, I think I was close.

STEWART CINK: Yeah, I used to love the course before too. It was great. They had the Ryder Cup here, you know, in 1961.

STEWART CINK: Yeah. But it was always a great course. Then when they came and redesigned it, they just made it a lot better.

STEWART CINK: There is some stories that go around how bad it was, but it was never bad. It wasn't the best -- it wasn't like this, but it was never bad. The greens were okay. They did have some trouble with the vandalism, but the course was fine.

STEWART CINK: I remember, not that it happened to me, but I remember a story from our team a couple of years before I came to school, one guy was actually robbed on the third tee, held up through the fence at gun point. Actually that happened to our team twice. Once here and once at metropolitan.

STEWART CINK: I think outside of a major, it would mean the most. This is my place right here, my home and my course. I have my own locker all the time, and I have had to get used to the new entry. I tried to mow (sic) off a couple of spectators down there in the front gate this week trying to drive in there. I think outside a major, this would mean the most to me.

STEWART CINK: I think it is fitting. Especially -- are we on the one year anniversary of his death today?

STEWART CINK: I knew it was pretty close. But I think it is fitting that we kind of, you know, we are in the same tournament now than we were last year. In the golf calendar, we are kind of at the one year anniversary. I think it is great that they dedicated some time during this day to think back to Payne Stewart and this award is a great way to honor him.

STEWART CINK: We are all individuals, so everybody is kind of dealt with it their own way, and achieved their own level of closure. I am sure the players that were super close to Payne have still some very tough times. But everybody is different and I can only speak for myself. I can't really say that for everybody else, but I think this is good for me personally. It has been a year now where the Tour has kind have gone on and Tracey Stewart has a presence out here still. We still see her occasionally. Everybody talks to her a lot. She has been great. So this way of remembering Payne is going to be very significant, I think not only for the players, but also for the fans and all the officials and everybody that will be here covering and working at this tournament.

STEWART CINK: I personally like the concept of taking it to five or six, four, or whatever rotation, different parts of the country because I think this is a chance for us to put golf into areas that doesn't see golf all the time. Atlanta, we have golf every year, we have, you know, all the major Tours here, but I think it would be good to take the tournament to places that don't have regular tournaments all the time. So I have kind of a yes and no answer, I would like it to be here a lot. But I don't think it needs to be here every year.

STEWART CINK: Oh, I don't know.

STEWART CINK: Not that I have specific courses. I just think it needs a rotation. Sugarloaf, Druid Hills, East Lake, the Golf Club of Georgia "Creek Side."

STEWART CINK: Second part first. It was a huge motivator for me to play well and to get a good start, so I didn't have to put pressure on myself to try to qualify again. Then I won a tournament in April, MCI Classic, so I felt like I was pretty much safe after that even though I didn't make enough money at that point I knew I was going to play at least some decent golf the rest of the year. And so it was a big motivator. Now, back to the first part. I think the loss, as far as losing out of this tournament in 1998 was probably my low point on Tour. That was terrible. I hated that. Just because I have made such a public deal of the fact that this was a goal to get here in this tournament and then to put myself in position of that tournament and fail was -- not only was it disappointing but pretty embarrassing. It was a definitely low point to have a lot of my friends and all the players come in here and play and enjoy the place and me not be part of it.

STEWART CINK: Yeah, we were in town for part of the week. Then we went up to our lake house in Alabama, kind of got it winterized part of the week.

STEWART CINK: No. I watched part of it on TV. I love being up there, but it is a close second.

STEWART CINK: Of course I wish I was there, but I like seeing the golf course. I think it was well received by everybody. I was kind of proud of that.